THE DECLINE AND PALL

39(i

chap, racteristic marks of the people of Germany and ofSarmatia, we shall discover that those two greatportions of human kind were principally dis-tinguished by fixed huts or moveable tents, bya close dress, or flowing garments, by the mar-riage of one or of several wives, by a militaryforce, consisting, for the most part, either of in-fantry or cavalry; and, above all, by the use ofthe Teutonic, or of the Sclavonian language, thelast of which has been diffused, by conquest,from the confines of Italy to the neighbourhoodof Japan .

«on C of P the The Goths were now in possession of the

Ukraine. Ukraine, a country of considerable extent anduncommon fertility, intersected with navigablerivers, which from either side discharged them-selves into the Borysthenes, and interspersedwith large and lofty forests of oaks. The plentyof game and fish, the innumerable bee-hives de-posited in the hollow of old trees, and in the ca-vities of rocks, and forming, even in that rudeage, a valuable branch of commerce, the size ofthe cattle, the temperature of the air, the aptnessof the soil for every species of grain, and theluxuriancy of the vegetation, all displayed theliberality of nature, and tempted the industry ofman.* But the Goths withstood all these temp-tations, and still adhered to a life of idleness, ofpoverty, and of rapine.

e Genealogical History of the Tartars, p. 693. Mr. Bell. (vol. ii, p.379) traversed the Ukraine in his journey from Petersburg!) to Con-stantinople . The modern face of the country is a just representationof the ancient, since, in the hands of the Cossacks , it still remains in astate of nature.